Bruno's PicksWe are two weeks plus away from Del Mar. This meet was tough one to navigate through in 2009, but there is some silver lining in the 2010 rendition of where the surf meets the turf.Last summer Del Mar was open for business and Santa Anita's Pro-Ride surface was its supporting cast. Santa Anita and Hollywood Park alternate each year as the training track for Del Mar. This is an handicapping angle or factor players must be very aware of. Why? Because horses that ship in from the off-track are often very live, but are often discounted since most of the private clockers are paying close attention to what happens seaside at Del Mar. There is a vast, overwhelming, sentiment that you have to be at the track, stabled at the track and work over the home track to be successful. I vastly disagree and I am often at the off-site facility to catch the relatively obscure horse that trains over that surface. For example, for years Ron McAnally held his B-string at Hollywood when racing was at Santa Anita and a large number of his longshot came from the off-site. Jeff Mullins in 2009 hit 47% with his B-String at Hollywood under Bobby Troeger while racing at Santa Anita. Those are numbers the general and even knowledgeable player was not aware of. Handicappers are not even aware of where the horses are training overall. Too many couldn't, or wouldn't be paying attention to where the horse was stabled or worked. It could have been a track in Bum Ducked Egypt, but if it had a fast, or bullet, work, only then the handicapper was all ears. Last season at Del Mar was in one and a million: The Santa Anita Pro-Ride was its training facility for the summer. We, Bobby Troeger, and I, had a split barn. We have seven or eight stalls at Del Mar and the rest at Santa Anita. Having been accustomed to our familiar surroundings and footing at Hollywood Park we were forced to take a crash course, on not one, but two surfaces: The Pro-Ride and the Poly. Yes, it is that hard to adjust over a new surface or especially one that is only used 8 weeks out of the year. Good or bad, there is an adjustment period. The Pro-Ride at Santa Anita was being tinkered with all Del Mar long. They were cutting 1/8 mile strips at a time after training and adding material and polymers. Thus, it was a continuously inconsistent surface, and most of the time the horses were forced to train on the inside training track at SA. This was not ideal for horses that had the friendly confines of a nine furlong oval at Hollywood most of their career. By the time they adjusted it was time to return to Hollywood after Del Mar. Del Mar was a training session on the fly. Hollywood Park trainers needed the time to adjust there. John Shirreffs has had problems going from the cushion at Hollywood to the Del Mar poly. Both Tiago & Zenyatta almost refused alltogether to train over it, but what choice did he really have? It was either the heat, and the ever changing Pro-Ride at Santa Anita or the inconsistent Polytrack with very little banking on the turns at Del Mar. These subtle changes don't really affect the handicapper, but hit the trainer squarely between the eyes! Bobby Troeger had to rely strictly on his help and assistant at Santa Anita, while working out the kinks over a new surface: At Santa Anita we had some issues with some of the horses, one of them had a stifle lock-up after a work and had to be vanned off. It was directly related to traveling over a surface that was inconsistent from the renovation and unfamiliar to the muscle and bones of this Hollywood based animal. Meanwhile, at Del Mar we had one horse run on a very deep track and strain a tendon, another one was so exhausted after her first race over the Poly that it was almost falling down while cooling off. A third one, never handled it, and came out very crabby from the race. Later in the meet we had another one that chipped a knee on the surface. Last summer was a disaster, as it seemed to be no viable option to train a thoroughbred here in California for the heralded summer meet, and it showed in the box scores, if you will. San Luis Rey Downs was one viable option and some took it and will do so again this summer, but you still have to deal with an acclamation period. You cant' ship in over a new surface and immediately train the same way. Each track has its quirks. The difference this summer is that Hollywood Park will remain open. Ron Ellis, Neil Drysdale, Doug O'Neill, Bobby Troeger, and many others will stay at Hollywood. I expect to see Hollywood full of horses getting to ready for Del Mar at the nine furlong oval, and the fact that this will be the first year in a long time that Del Mar's track will have a new man at the helm: Richard Tedesco has replaced the incumbent Steve Wood as track superintendent. Maybe Richard will keep this track square all meet long. Maybe, we will get consistency from first to last race daily, and from opening to closing day. This year should be a different kind of year. Fields should be fuller with the help of Hollywood scene going on and Tedesco keepin it on the square. The Del Mar will produce its share of winners, but the ones that little or no info will come from Hollywood Park and score at bunches. I will for the first time in a twenty years that I will be splitting time between Hollywood and Del Mar. We have our eyes and ears at Del Mar and will devote our time between the two tracks. If history repeats itself, we had a fantastic meet at Del Mar two years ago when Hollywood was open as the training facility. We will hope to capitalize it all in our Workout History Report and Raceday Analysis. Everything is available at my site CLICK HERE for our VIP Section> .....Play smart, Play well this year. |
